Wednesday, May 29, 2013

What Will You Do Differently?

About half way through the year, I already had a million ideas of what I wanted to do to next year! I decided I definitely needed to narrow it down. Otherwise I would try to do them all, and none of them would actually get done. So I'm linking up with Finding Joy in 6th Grade to make an actual list of what I'm going to do!

Maybe if I write it all down, it will actually happen! Maybe...

This year, we did Daily 5 with some guided reading mixed in. For most of the year, I really liked it. The kids were super independent and I had so many make major steps in reading. But part way through the year, I felt like we got stuck in a rut. I was having a hard time thinking of new, fun, engaging things for them do to, especially in Word Work. So next year, we are going to do Reader's Workshop! I am super excited about it!

At the beginning of last year, I thought I had a pretty good setup for everything. As the year went on, I collected more and more things, and just didn't have a place for them or make a place for them. I started organizing things at the end of the year, and I plan to finish up when I go back in August. Next year, I will stay on top of it. I will, I will, I will.

We adopted a new math series that "is aligned to Common Core." I think that must have been the only thing the curriculum people were looking for. It started day one with addition. Now, I don't know about your classes, but most of mine were not ready for this. The other thing I didn't like, they thought spending 2-3 days on one skill was enough. So funny! I always wonder who it is that actually writes these books. When was the last time they were actually in a classroom?! I am not really sure what our math will look like next year. I am spending some time this summer looking through blogs and TpT looking for some great resources--any suggestions?